Sunday, December 27, 2015

Primordial forces ripped an enormous trench in the face of Yngarr - revealing layers of prehistoric ruins and secret places...

1. THE SILENT VOIDHidden in a vault beneath the peaks of Pnok is a shimmering hole, a mile wide, and silently spinning. Some say that this was one of the original inter-dimensional gates that was created by the Zundite (A haunted shrine to Atigo can be found nearby.) Anyone who dares to enter, or even touch the darkness, will be flung into another dimension.

2. HALL OF XORITHAn immense cavern corridor that ends at a howling pit that leads into the realm of Xorith. The cavern has become home to swarms of hungry behemoth worms and their blind masters.

3. unexplored

4. FUNGAL CITY OF XORITHLit by the floating luminescent spores, the vast city of Xorith rises from the expanse of fungus. The city's mighty pyramids and towering obelisks are covered in iridescent lichens and fungus.

5. DEAD CITY OF SHARNOnce, this thriving city of artisans, brewers, and priests stood high above a crystalline sea. Now it is silent. The silent tower still stands and has become a place for necromancers and fell wizards to study the foulest of magics.

6. THE BRIDGEA treacherous bridge over the abyss.

7. THE DOME OF FIRESurrounded by unyielding fires, this domed metal structure is sealed by powerful magic. Within the dome is said to be the heart and eye of an ancient Star Wyrm.

8. LORTHOX JIMM'S SKY COFFINSuspended on a pulley system, the "Sky Coffin" is a pod made from clay and wood. It's control box is on the outskirts of Xorith. The pod's destination chamber is at the top of the Starry Tower in Cerestan.

9. RUINS OF THE STARRY RUNEThe ruins of the ancient star-vessel "The Starry Rune" lay here. The ship was made from silver and clay, but most of the silver machinery and filigree has long since been plundered.

10. THE FLOATING SEAA vast ocean rings the planet, floating in the lower atmosphere. Most of this mysterious sea is unexplored.

11. THE STAR CITY OF CERESTANThe Cerestanites came to Yngarr when the planet was young. Their star-vessel crashed and they built this grand city on the shores of the ancient shallow sea. The city has resisted the eons of decay and entropy, yet it lay empty as the Cerestanites could no longer support their corporeal forms...

Sunday, December 20, 2015

In the earliest
memories of the cosmos, there was Yngarr – a colossal planet that
slowly orbited a green sun. Yngarr was ruled by powerful denizens
called the ZUNDITE. The Zundite took creatures from other worlds and
separate dimensions so that they could have slaves and consorts. The
Zundite became their gods and goddesses. After thousands of years,
the slaves and consorts had developed their own culture, and
worshiped new gods, and soon, they rose up against the Zundite and
imprisoned them. However, some of the Zundite escaped. In exchange
for their freedom, the sisters Xyglia and Atigo agreed to share their
knowledge of cosmic sorcery.

Whether by accident
or by treacherous design (most likely the latter), Xyglia let a
monstrous star demon through the dimension gate - VORYCHH - THE SUN-EATER, as great and terrible as the vastness of space, devoured the
green star at the center of Yngarr's solar system and the planet was
flung from orbit and hurled into deep space. For eons it drifted.
Silent, black, and frozen.

In a ring of planets
around a pale, red star, Yngarr found a new home. The rogue
ball of black ice smashed into an unwary planet and the resulting
cataclysm spilled Yngarr's molten core over the frozen surface,
creating vast oceans, clouds, and storms. Dense jungles and fungal
forests arose on the re-born planet. The debris of the crash created
a system of seven moons and rings of cosmic dust.

Deep beneath the
surface of the planet, the remains of the once mighty kingdom of the
Zundite still sleeps as it has for billions of years. Cities,
temples, and towers, still bearing the impossible star treasures and
secrets of their lost masters...

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

00.01 - As the party's vessel
approaches the north eastern coast of the island, the water becomes
increasingly shallow. There is a 60% chance that the craft will run
aground, leaving the party with no choice but walk through the
shallows (4 feet maximum) 1d6 bull sharks swim these waters.

00.02 - As the party's vessel
approaches the island, the water becomes increasingly shallow. A reef
separates the ship from the island for the last mile of the voyage.
The reef is jagged and slippery, so player movement is at half.
Observant players will notice that the reef is devoid of any life.
There are no fish, no crabs, or any other sea creatures. At every
hour of travel, each player must make a dexterity save or else slip
and fall onto the jagged reef - 1d4 damage.

00.03 - The remains of an old
triple-masted sailing ship rots in the shallow water. Aboard the ship
is an undead pirate crew -

1d20 Skeletons

1d10 Zombies

1d8 Lacedons

1d6 Ghasts

1 captain - a 4 HD vampire

00.04 - 1d4 Sea Hags haunt the marshy
coastline here. They have a hidden cave where they have hidden a
cache of treasure (various items collectively worth around 700 g.p.)
and weapons.

00.05 - The immense carcass of a giant
whale lays in the shallows here. The wounds along its body suggests a
shark attack. Inside the carcass, trapped in it's belly, a crazed
sailor screams for escape. The sailor is naked, blind, and
half-crazed. His skin and hair are bleached bone white. If given food
and water, he will remember that his name is 'William' and his last
memory is of his ship being caught in a terrible storm. 'William'
will demand that the party either take him with them or return him to
their vessel. In combat situations, 'William' will cower and flee.
After food and rest, his eyesight will return, but he will try to
convince the party otherwise. 'William' was actually a ship's captain
who was thrown overboard by his crew. He thinks the party were part
of the mutiny and will try to assassinate them while their guard is
down. Treat 'William' as a 4th level fighter.

00.06 - As the party's vessel
approaches the island, the water becomes increasingly shallow. A reef
separates the ship from the island for the last mile of the voyage.
The reef is jagged and slippery, so player movement is at half.
Observant players will notice that the reef is devoid of any life.
There are no fish, no crabs, or any other sea creatures. At every
hour of travel, each player must make a dexterity save or else slip
and fall onto the jagged reef - 1d4 damage.

00.07 - The remains of a huge statue
lay silently beneath the surface of the shallow water. The vessel
will be unable to get any closer to the island, so the party can
traverse the length of the statue to the shore. The statue is of an
enormous naked woman with no face. When it was still erect, it stood
over 100' tall.

00.08 - A fog overtakes the ship for
1d12 hours, making visibility nil. There is a 70% chance that the vessel may crash onto the rocks or run
aground in the shallows.

00.09 - A small rowboat of 1d6 brigands
circles the south western corner of the island. They will attack the
party's vessel on sight with crossbows. Brigands are 3rd level
fighters, but one of them will be a 5th level fighter/3rd level thief
captain.

01.00 - Jagged rocks rise above the
surface of the water. The remains of dozens of shipwrecked boats also
rise above the waves. Hiding in the shipwrecks are barnacled zombies (1d20). Treat as regular zombies, but with AC 2 due to their barnacle coverings.

01.05 - In a concealed cove, the ruins
of an old harbor town lay crumbling in the water. Within the ruins
there are

1d10 zombies

1d10 skeletons

1d6 aquatic ghouls

1d6 undead sharks

01.07 - This cove is filled with
shallow, stagnant water. The ruins of an old watchtower are here -
piles of black stone and moldy wooden beams. In a clear pool within
the rubble is a large treasure chest. It is actually in the center of
a large (10' x 10') gelatinous cube.

01.09 - A group of Ixitxachitl (1d8)
swim the shallow waters. They guard a patch of garnet coral - worth
100 gp per ounce. There is approximately 11 ounces of the stuff that
grows from the sandy bottom of the reef. Harvesting the coral will
require an extremely sharp saw or serrated knife. The coral is
covered with razor-like spines and can only be handled with leather
or chainmail gloves. If a player mishandles the coral, they will
suffer 1d4 hp of damage and save vs. poison and take half damage.

02.00 - This rocky coast is lashed by
waves and wind. A narrow cave is clearly visible in the face of the
cliff. The cave is 8' high by 3' wide at it's mouth. The cave leads
to a passage into the mountains. See 02.01

02.09 - As the party's vessel
approaches the island, the water becomes increasingly shallow. A reef
separates the ship from the island for the last mile of the voyage.
The reef is jagged and slippery, so player movement is at half.
Observant players will notice that the reef is devoid of any life.
There are no fish, no crabs, or any other sea creatures. At every
hour of travel, each player must make a dexterity save or else slip
and fall onto the jagged reef - 1d4 damage.

03.09 - The crumbling ruins of an
ancient stone wharf. A wooden pier juts out into the shallow water
where it ends abruptly in a pile of desiccated timber. The pier is
extremely damaged and players will fall through the boards. Beneath
the harbor is a mutated kraken with twelve tentacles. It was created
in one of Lord Necrite's experiments.

04.09 - The water becomes increasingly
shallow and leads to a salt marsh where a tribe of Lizardfolk (1d20)
and Bullywugs (1d12) await trespassers.

05.09 - A wrecked funeral barge is
moored here to a pier leading to a system of raised paths and
platforms into the marsh. Aboard the funeral barge are Ghouls (1d6)
and Barnacled Zombies (1d10 - treat as regular zombies but with AC 2
due to their barnacle coverings)

06.00 - A thick fog makes visibility
nearly zero. Around the boat, a group of mermaids will call to the
party and promise to guide them safely through the fog. The party
will see red and yellow lights twinkling through the fog. In reality,
the ship will crash into the rocks along the shore. The mermaids are
actually vampiric mermaids (1d4) and they will lurk in the water,
waiting for the players to make their way ashore.

06.09 - The water becomes increasingly
shallow and leads to a salt marsh where a tribe of Lizardfolk (1d20)
and Bullywugs (1d12) await trespassers.

07.00 - Jagged rocks rise above the
surface of the water. The remains of dozens of shipwrecked boats also
rise above the waves. Hiding in the shipwrecks are 1d4 Sea Hags who
will appear as beautiful maidens to the party. They will plead with
the party for help.

08.01 - The water here is covered with
large deposits of salt. Like ice floes, they bob in the water. The
salt covers the shore like white stones leading to the marshy land.
Rising up from the water are (1d10) zombies of drowned sailors. The
salt has sucked the moisture out of their bodies so they appear as
strange black skeletons. Their very appearance is so startling that
they gain a +4 to initiative.

08.02 - A shallow lagoon. A waterfall
cascades down from the tall jagged cliffs above. Behind the
waterfall, carved into the black rock is a cave leading into the
mountain. See 07.02

08.07 - A group of Ixitxachitl (1d8)
swim the shallow waters.

08.08 - The ruins of a sunken temple
can be seen, rising above the water. A group of Sahaugin (1d12) will
readily attack anyone who disturbs this holy site.

08.09 - An enormous mass of tarry ooze
covers the face of the water. It is roughly 30' x 30' in area. If
it comes into contact with any organic matter, it will become
permanently stuck to it and begin to eat away at it with a powerful
acid. A normal-sized human including armor and gear can be eaten away
in less than ten rounds. The ooze is impervious to weapons, but can
be affected by magical attacks. A high level (8+) cleric can also
defeat the ooze with a cure disease spell. Oil and fire can also be
effective - doing 1d12 worth of damage per turn. The ooze has 74 hit
points.

09.02 - The water becomes increasingly
shallow and leads to a salt marsh where a tribe of Lizardfolk (1d20)
and Bullywugs (1d12) await trespassers.

09.03 - A young man lays on the rocks
here, he appears emaciated and delirious. If the party offers
assistance, he will reveal himself to be a wererat and will summon
giant rats (2d10) to attack the party. Additionally, the party's
vessel will be swarmed with thousands of rats from within the hull.

09.04 - A fog overtakes the ship for
1d12 hours, making visibility nil. There is a 70% chance that the vessel may crash onto the rocks or run
aground in the shallows.

09.05 - Merrows (1d4) live here in the
muddy waters along the shore. They're hungry.

09.06 - There is a stone lighthouse
here. It rises up 70' into the air. The light has been extinguished
long ago and the door to the staircase within is covered by the tide.
A closer look reveals that chained to the sides of the tower are the
skeletal remains of dozens upon dozens of sailors and explorers. They
click their jaws and rattle their chains to warn anyone who comes to
the island...

Thursday, June 4, 2015

It was the early 80s, I was obsessed with the Lord of the Rings, Conan, the Dragon's Lair video game. Dungeons & Dragons was played by my friends' older brothers who listened to Iron Maiden and drove Chevettes. It seemed like a good path to take. The books were huge and filled with awesome art, monsters, and the occasional tit...

I played D&D and AD&D with my friends until my adolescent self-consciousness made me quit cold turkey. However, I still indulged myself in Michael Moorcock, HP Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, those Thieves World anthologies, and the occasional terrible D&D tie-in book. As I left my teenage years behind, the scope of my reading expanded into William S. Burroughs, Robert Anton Wilson, and the like.

My friends got me hooked on those Magic The Gathering cards and a lot of my classmates in college were way into the White Wolf books. I actually got really into M:tG and actually did a lot of play testing for Fallen Empires and the Ice Age expansion, as well as that V:tM card game - Jihad, which, I'm convinced, no one really knew how to play. I even won a Jihad tournament at a local comic book store, however, I was doing lots of drugs back then. That's probably why I soon started playing Palladium Fantasy Role Playing and Changeling: The Dreaming with friends on and off the Internet.

I started preferring to buy cigarettes over booster packs of Magic cards, so I quit my brief addiction to the cardboard. A few years later, the much-maligned third edition of D&D came out. It was shiny and glossy and hey, it was fun to play. That CD Rom did all the work for you. Better still, since it was new, there was always a game happening somewhere. I drove all over the Bay Area, playing D&D with strangers in the back rooms of comic stores, in McMansion living rooms, in hotel ballrooms for the new Living Greyhawk series. I was hooked again. I was in my mid-twenties, in a band, working a useless job, and pretending to be an elf just made sense at the time.

As D&D III hobbled out of sight, and 3.5 (which suddenly made me think of RPGs as operating systems rather than an extremely involved parlor game) rolled in, I was no longer in a band, struggling to pay my bills, and pretending to be an elf no longer fit in...

...until my first mid-life crisis, when I suddenly drew in everything that I had loved when I was twelve - heavy metal, punk rock, comic books, Elric novels, Lovecraft, and D&D via the great Labyrinth Lord and OSRIC. I even started a blog about it. Holy shit.

Of course, this 30 day challenge thing is complete bollocks and I'll probably just post a few entries about the prompts that I actually find interest in writing about.

The
pirates will demand that the party hand over whatever treasure and
valuables that they have on board. If there is nothing of any value
over 500gp, the pirates will demand that the party give up their ship
and try to board the craft.

If
the captain's HP are reduced by half, he will call off his crew and
will concede by giving the party a (cursed) rapier with a
jewel-studded hilt and scabbard. The pirates own vessel is filled
with various treasure and stolen goods, mostly cursed.

03
Giant Squid - 10% chance that it is sleeping and the party's craft
passes undetected.

04
Giant Sea Turtles (1d4)

05
Wind stops. All sailing progress ceases for 1d20 hours.

06
Burning shipwreck

A
large sailing ship, engulfed by flames. 3 survivors are in a small
rowboat. They beg for food and water. After receiving food and drink,
they will refuse to travel with the party to "The Dead Island"
They will attempt to sabotage the boat and/or fight to the death to
halt the party's progress. Treat the survivors as 3rd
level fighters.

07
Sunken Monolith / Ruined Temple

A
colossal monolith of black rock rises from the sea, 60 feet into the
air. Mysterious inscriptions can be seen upon it. Surrounding it are
the ruined suggestions of a once-mighty temple - columns and walls
just visible below the face of the water. There is a 20' stone
walkway covered in ropes of kelp. If a member of the party attempts
to cross it to inspect the monolith, they will need to complete a
dexterity save. The inscriptions are in a strange language that are
impossible to decipher. For every turn spent examining the monolith,
there is a 5% chance that they may permanently forget a spell. After 6 turns, the monolith and the ruins will begin to tremble and sink
back beneath the waves. Another dexterity save will be needed to get
back into the boat safely.NOTE: These ruins can and will appear in various places in the sea. If the party wishes to return to explore the ruins, they will not be where they were initially found.

08
Giant Carnivorous Whales (1d4)

09
Mermaids (1d6)

They will speak openly of a terrible undersea conflict
to the south, and warn of "water devils" and the vast
treasure taken from a magnificent sunken city. They will also warn of
the "old sea witches" who can drown a man just with only
their gaze. If asked about the island, they will vanish beneath the
water.

10
Hobgoblin War Barge

(20
Hobgoblins, 30 Goblins, 40 Norkers, 6 Varag, 1 Ogre task master)

This
sleek warship is rowed by a team of goblins and norkers. The ship is
fitted with catapults and harpoon ballistae. Their ship is able to
launch ceramic jugs of oil, followed by flaming pitch in order to set
enemy vessels ablaze. The captain of the ship has an uneasy truce
with Jareth Koel – a
pirate who sails these waters. The hobgoblins have assisted Koel on
many raids, yet there is still great mistrust between the two.

In Development

weird fantasy on distant worlds

UP THE DUNGEON PUNKS!

Online repository for ideas and ruminations on my current and developing RPG projects and campaigns. Inspired by weirdness and powered by the strange, the first four Black Sabbath albums, and Ballast Point Sculpin.